Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, has announced a $3 million matching grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in New York City.

Awarded on the basis of a 3:1 match, with the school having already raised $9 million toward its $15 million capital campaign goal, the grant will be used to create a dedicated fund, to be called the Mellon Core, that addresses two of the school's highest priorities: building its endowment and attracting and retaining talented faculty. Sarah Lawrence was one of sixteen "excellent but under-endowed" liberal arts colleges invited by the foundation to apply for a grant through its Centers of Excellence initiative.

The so-called Core is unusual in that it will spin off endowed chairs or program directorships, rather than be subject to the standard use of endowment income for operations. All earnings on the fund will be reinvested until it has a large enough principal balance to fund the first endowed chair in 2008-09. Because returns from the fund will be reinvested, school officials expect that it will be possible to generate new chair endowments from the principal every two or three years.

"Teaching people to think well takes face-to-face time between teachers and students," said Sarah Lawrence president Michele Myers, "and that requires substantial investment in faculty."